Second squat workout since tearing the hamstring. My first time back last week i kept with just the Hatfield bar, no weight, and hit 20 reps per set, just trying to force a lot of blood into the legs, and taking them all of the way down to stretch the hams out as much as possible. No weight actually kicked my ass, and i was very sore on Monday. Today I stayed with the Hatfield bar and added 44 pounds for my sets, still staying with high reps. it was just Courtney Stanley and I working out today, so we kept it quick and easy. Courtney is on his deload week on the 5/3/1 program, so his weights were light and easy as well. I am hitting the cardio again tomorrow. My eating habits have been all over the place. Since the ham tear I have gone completely of the rails. I still have 5-6 months before a meet, but i need to get back on track now and not wait until the last minute.

My torn hammy is almost ready to be tested. I was advised to not squat on pressure it until all of the bruising was gone, so that is what I have done. Unfortunately, the rest of my training has suffered. This is purely a mental issue, as I was cruising along quite nicely until the tear, and it really let the air out of my sails. Now, however, I had regenerated my enthusiasm, and will start back this week with a vengeance!

My leg still shows bruising, which in this case is just blood that pooled when the hamstring tore. This means another week off of squatting, but this doesn’t mean I get to lay around, nosiree! I hit back and biceps with chins, pulldowns, I arm rows, bb and db curls. Finished up with the ab wheel for 2 sets. Diet has been pretty good this week, keeping it protein heavy and calorie light. The joints were hurting and since I wasn’t lifting heavy the last 2 weeks I figured it was my dairy heavy diet. I’ll cut out the dairy and stick with protein, fruits, and veggies to see if that will help like I think it will. I’ll also be goin back on yoga this week to get my flexibility back, which is what I believe caused the year in the first place.

Friday was my first real workout since I tore my hamstring. It was heavy bench today and I worked up to a set of five pauses with 303. I didn’t go max attempts on reps because my elbows and shoulders were hurting too much. I won’t be squatting again until the blood is gone from my leg. I’ll just hit back and biceps on Sunday. This will be a good time to increase my cardio work basically from zero so I guess anything would be an increase.

Well, this sucks. I had a pretty good workout going, weight felt light, and then on my 6th rep at my top weight of 308 in the squat, mu upper right hamstring pops. Luckily it doesn’t feel like I ripped it completely, but it will take some nursing before I put weight on it again, at least 2 weeks. Next week was a deload week anyway, so this will fit right into the training plan. I attribute it to two things. First, I wasn’t wearing my flat soled squat shoes. I forgot them at the house and had to squat in my running shoes, which puts me up on my toes and out of position. second, and more importantly, I haven’t been stretching during the week, making me too tight in the bottom of the squat. On the 6th rep I took it deeper than the rest of the reps, and paid for it.

I’ve also been a bad boy and let my weight glide back up, so I will be fixing that beginning now. Back to cardio, plyos, eating right. Goal is to hit 200 by January 1st.

Today was the 3rd week of the 5/3/1 cycle on bench, so it was 264 x5, 297 x 3, and then 330 x 1 plus, which turned out to be 10 reps. I felt a twinge in the right shoulder on the first rep but kept going with the set, and now, 12 hours later, it hurts a widdle bitty bit. Dave Jeffrey said I was favoring one side on the set, but on the video you can’t tell. They look ridiculously easy, and I felt like I had 5 more reps in me, but I was leery of ripping out the shoulder. You be the judge of how easy it looks:

I’m skipping the down week next week, so I will be hitting 308 on the bench for 5 plus on the restart of the 5/3/1 cycle. So far I have really liked this set-up, keeps the mind free of stress, so I’ll stay with this for awhile. I skipped deadlifts this week because I was in Cleveland, but I fwlt like I needed the back and hips to take a break anyway. The squat weight is the lightest in the cycle, mainly because i kept the max weight really conservative when figuring my percentages. I’ll start adding rack squats to make up for the lack of weight on my back, but this week I’ll be hitting 308 for my top weight for 1 plus. should hit around 10 reps all told.

Retooled my training. Started two weeks ago on the 5/3/1 training and boy has that made a difference mentally! In a nutshell, take you max in each of the main lifts, subtract 10%, and use that number to base your training percentages on each week. The first week you end up at 85% for 5 reps, second week 90% for 3 reps, third week 95% for a single. However, if you can do more reps on that last set, do them, so for example, last week I was supposed to finish with 303 for 3 reps, but I ended up doing 10 before I stopped. I don’t do an absolute max of reps, I leave a little in the tank. I have found the closer you get to the max number reps, the sloppier your form gets, which is an invitation to injury.

On the fourth week you are supposed to do a “deload” week, where the weight is drastically reduced and you don’t max the reps. The next week you start over on the 5/3/1, but add weight to the previous percentages, 5-10 pounds depending on the lift.

This training really seems to suit my age. The best thing is less stress about an upcoming workout. I’ll keep letting you know how it goes. Peace.

Still sticking with High Bar Squats…deeeeeep…here is an example:

We do 5 sets of 3 reps at the top weight. Well, me and Courtney Stanley do that, the rest move on to leg extensions after 1 set at their top weight…that should get them a lot stronger. After squats we hit heavy hack squats, then still-leg deadlifts for the hamstrings. We finish Sunday’s with heavy bicep work.

My bodyweight is down to 212 today, finally hitting a drop spurt after hanging at 216 for the last few weeks. Besides eating better, I have been taking my youngest son, Max, on long walks of 2 miles or more through the woods on trails that are up and down hills…great for both of us.

Another minute or two between updates. Good news is that no training has been missed. Actually everything was jumping ahead of schedule due to my greediness, so I backed off the weights and re-cycled. My last heavy bench workout I worked up to 352 for a triple, then backed it down last week to 319. On squats, we backed it down quite a bit. We switched to high bar, deeeeeeeep (rock bottom) squats. Talk about sore! I will do these for a couple of more weeks, then go back to heavy rack squats on Sunday’s and put the high bars on with my deadlift days. Speaking of deadlifts, we are still rotating Romanian deads with regular deeds, and I feel healthier doing it this way.

Good training today. Felt strong on all lifts today. I worked up to 341 for an easy triple on the bench, worked with 80′s on db inclines, and used 80 pounds on dips today for 8 reps.